Mangaluru auto rickshaw blast: How the plot unravelled

The identity of the auto rickshaw passenger still remains a mystery

The Karnataka police burnt the midnight oil as the trail from the auto rickshaw blast in Mangaluru on Saturday evening led them to Mysuru, Hubballi and Tamil Nadu. While the investigations so far have led the state police chief Praveen Sood to declare it an “act of terror”, the identity of the perpetrator — presently under treatment in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a hospital in Mangaluru with over 40% burn injuries — still remains a mystery. 

A passenger hired an auto rickshaw driven by Purushottam, a resident of Mangaluru, at Naguri Bus Station on the outskirts of Mangaluru to Pumpwell Junction on Saturday evening. Shortly after, there was a blast in the autorickshaw and the vehicle was engulfed in dense white smoke. Though initial suspicions were over a possible tyre burst or a technical glitch in the rickshaw, the evidence at the site of the blast led Mangaluru City Police to suspect otherwise.

“The fire in the auto rickshaw started from the bag of the passenger,” Mangaluru City Police Commissioner N. Shashi Kumar had said on Saturday after the incident. “What raised red flags was the presence of a pressure cooker, earlier used by many terrorist organisations for IED blasts, remains of a battery operated circuit and many nuts and bolts used to pack an IED,” a senior police official in the know said. 

There was a very low-key blast sound followed by fire and smoke. “Preliminary investigations have pointed to low-intensity explosives like phosphorus used in matchsticks or gunpowder being used, and not Ammonium Nitrate, commonly used in IEDs. The bomb was very crudely made in a very amateur way with two cells,” a senior police officer said. 

The bomb accidentally went off, probably because of heating up of the explosive material due to friction, on the way to its destination, the police suspect.

“The explosive was packed in the pressure cooker and the auto passenger came to Mangaluru in a bus and then boarded the auto rickshaw. The travel would have caused friction, which would have heated up the explosive material causing the accidental blast,” a senior police official said.

The explosive used and what triggered the explosion, is now being probed by the Forensic Science Laboratory, Bengaluru, from which teams have rushed to Mangaluru.